Taihao Fuxi’s Eight Trigrams Diagram had exhausted its effect.

The Power that had perfectly hidden over a hundred people, and even the boat they rode, could no longer be used.

No matter how covert a person’s movement arts were, there were limits.

Only a very few, including Dam Hyun, could completely hide themselves even before a transcendent master.

In other words, their approach toward the Evil Cult’s main headquarters was like a gamble the entire time.

It was certain they would be discovered and clash sooner or later, but that moment had to be delayed as much as possible.

That was why those with the sharpest senses took the lead.

So they could find any Evil Cult sentries that would surely be there first, and kill them quietly.

There was no way they would fail to notice Il-oh advancing while cutting vines with a machete.

Il-oh had long since been in Yi-gang’s sight.

That Yi-gang did not kill Il-oh on the spot was great luck for Il-oh.

Il-oh was not covert, he did not look like he had outstanding martial arts, and above all, he did not look like an Evil Cult sentry.

Carrying a large pack as if for traveling to Nanjing, he looked more like a wandering merchant.

Yi-gang did not kill him.

He only covered his mouth so he could not shout, and pressed a blade to his throat.

“What were you transporting?”

But Yi-gang’s voice was cold, like a grim reaper’s.

Even in his hazy state of mind, Il-oh felt fear.

“No answer.”

A chill sensation brushed past his back.

His back was cut. Something spilled out in a rush.

It was probably his organs.

Il-oh let out a dizzying death rattle.

“Lord Heuk-am…!”

But neither terrible pain nor immediate death came.

What rolled across the ground were Il-oh’s belongings from inside his pack.

Dried rations, a blanket, a little silver, and other ordinary things.

But the words Il-oh had blurted out were not ordinary.

“Did you say Heuk-am?”

A dignified old man appeared before Il-oh.

A clean, composed face. Familiar Wudang Taoist robes.

But a voice that resonated deeply, and a face he was certain he had seen before.

“Sword Emperor.”

Il-oh muttered that name without realizing it.

It was the man his lord Heuk-am had crossed hands with at Wudang.

He had been sure the man had ascended, so how was he here?

The Sword Emperor furrowed his brow.

“I have never seen your face before, yet you know me.”

Il-oh’s hazy mind slowly returned.

Only then could he properly grasp the situation around him.

There were Azure Forest disciples. The Sword Emperor, who had already been dead, was here.

“An… an attack…”

“Yes. Who are you? Why are you trying to escape the Evil Cult’s main headquarters right now?”

Escape? No, it was not that.

Heuk-am had sent Il-oh out.

So Il-oh was leaving Heuk-am, whom he had served for half his life, and heading for his little sister.

“I asked. Answer.”

“You look like you will not answer.”

Yi-gang shoved Il-oh back as if throwing him.

Son Hee-il subdued Il-oh like that.

“He’s suspicious. He seems like he knows something, so let’s interrogate him.”

When Taoist Cheok-gol nodded, Son Hee-il put a blade to Il-oh’s throat.

This was not the time to seek the righteousness of the orthodox path.

Everyone had lost their own people.

They would use torture and various arts to extract everything Il-oh knew.

Such things were always done in the Evil Cult as well.

Il-oh had seen countless Central Plains martial men captured and tortured.

Not a single one had fully endured torture and soul-seizing arts.

Il-oh would be the same.

Son Hee-il shoved a dagger into Il-oh’s mouth.

“Stay still.”

He wedged the dagger between the right molars so he could not bite off his tongue.

Taoist Cheok-gol glanced at Yi-gang and spoke.

“Let’s spend only about one tea’s1 time here.”

The group stopped advancing.

But they could afford to stay idle for long.

Group Three, including Dam Hyun, was circling around above the cliff, so they had to match their timing of entry.

Yi-gang did not interrogate Il-oh himself.

With a few others, he moved forward and kept watch toward the dark jungle beyond.

Jjireureuk, jjireureuk.

It was quieter than daytime, but the night jungle could not be called silent.

Within that noise, Yi-gang was not alone.

Zhang Sanfeng stood to his left, and the Heavenly Demon to his right.

“Priest.”

“When the battle is over, what will you do when you return?”

Yi-gang glanced at Zhang Sanfeng.

Then he frowned and spoke.

“That isn’t a topic to talk about at a time like this.”

“Hm? Then when do we talk about it?”

Zhang Sanfeng looked baffled.

But Yi-gang had no intention of trading such ominous questions and answers with the major undertaking ahead.

But the Heavenly Demon didn’t stay quiet either.

“When this is over, there will be no world left for you to take revenge on, and your craving for martial arts will be broken too. Do you not plan to become a king, or unify Murim?”

“Unify… Murim?”

Yi-gang did not have that kind of ambition, of course.

What he would do after it was over.

He had never thought about it deeply.

Even now, his father and countless others were trapped in that Crouching Dragon Basin.

If they failed to stop the Evil Cult this time, not only them, but countless people might ‘disappear.’

In this situation, was it not a luxury to think about what he would do after it ended?

That feeling might have stopped him from thinking about the future.

“Priest, the future is important. A person cannot live without a future.”

“One who does not look forward to the future cannot truly live the present. Will you think about it?”

Could he afford that kind of leeway?

Yi-gang could not answer right away, but he did not stop thinking either.

It came to mind.

What he should do once everything was finished.

Did he have a hobby, something he wanted to do?

No, not really.

So in the end, Yi-gang could only give a trivial answer.

“…I will start by finding what I want to do.”

“That is good as well.”

Zhang Sanfeng smiled faintly.

And that smile vanished in an instant.

Zhang Sanfeng’s gaze snapped upward.

When the Heavenly Demon leapt once, he was already up atop a large tree.

In the Heavenly Demon’s hand was the neck of a man wearing a strange stealth outfit.

One of the Seventeen Spirits died with his neck snapped.

Zhang Sanfeng also sprang up.

But rather than catching and killing a Seventeen Spirit hiding somewhere, he swung both arms through the air.

Slowly, drawing a taiji in the air in a gentle curve.

Hudo-dududuk-

Ox-Hair Needles dusted with black ash fell to the ground.

It seemed he had not only knocked away the hidden weapons flying in, but returned them as well.

Sure enough, someone who had been up in the tree fell to the ground with a thud.

They were hidden weapons coated with poison strong enough to kill instantly.

On their path had been Il-oh, who Son Hee-il was restraining.

Yi-gang and Il-oh’s gazes collided in midair.

Yi-gang flung Shooting Star Fang.

Shooting Star Fang shot out as if it were alive.

Then it pierced near brush that seemed to have nothing there.

There had clearly been no one there, yet a person was skewered.

It was one of the Seventeen Spirits.

Even though it had been right before their eyes, almost no one saw it.

It would have been nice if the Great Sage Equal to Heaven had been beside them, but since he was not, they had noticed too late.

Even after dealing with three Seventeen Spirits in an instant, Yi-gang couldn’t relax.

“Hide him!”

Son Hee-il hurriedly dragged Il-oh back.

An Ox-Hair Needle lodged into Son Hee-il’s forearm.

It was an Ox-Hair Needle coated with a deadly poison that could kill instantly. His face turned blue in an instant.

“Stay still!”

The one who saved Son Hee-il, who was on the verge of death, was Poison Demon.

At an unbelievable speed, he struck acupoints on Son Hee-il’s shoulder and poured a clear antidote over that forearm.

In the meantime, there was no one guarding Il-oh.

An unseen threat rushed toward Il-oh like an arrow.

The one saving grace was that no one around them let it go any further.

Yu Jeong-shin blocked Il-oh and chanted a mantra.

“Sabaha-!”

In Yu Jeong-shin’s hand as he shouted was a string of prayer beads, oddly unfitting for a Taoist.

When light burst from his hand, the Seventeen Spirit’s concealment art shattered.

The Seventeen Spirit, revealed, flinched.

Then he split from the crown of his head down to his chest, left and right.

Blood sprayed out.

The one who cleaved the Seventeen Spirit in half was Yi-gang.

The spurting blood splashed onto the people nearby.

In particular, blood poured over Il-oh’s face as he sat collapsed.

Il-oh gasped for breath.

The more he did, the blood smell made him dizzy and his head spun.

Maybe because of the hot blood, his head felt hot too.

Assassins. Assassins had come.

Those assassins were clearly trying to kill Il-oh.

Why…

“There may be more!”

“Sweep the surroundings. We may have been discovered.”

The Azure Forest disciples were busy with the sudden situation.

It was natural, since they did not know who Il-oh was, or who was trying to kill him.

But Il-oh was the same. He had not properly grasped the situation either.

‘Lord Heuk-am…’

He had left after being ordered by Heuk-am to go.

And then assassins appeared.

‘Did he truly…’

He thought he had been thrown away as a slave whose use had ended.

But was he being disposed of entirely like this?

A surge of emotion rose up, then his head cooled with surprising speed.

It was not that Il-oh was angry.

“…If that is your will.”

Il-oh muttered that.

Son Hee-il, whose face had turned bluish, turned at Il-oh’s voice.

Son Hee-il had barely survived, but he could sense a strange resolve lingering on Il-oh’s face.

“Ah… stop… stop…”

His tongue had stiffened, so he could not stop him in time.

In the end, Il-oh did it.

Puk.

With the sound of something bursting, Il-oh’s head snapped back.

And blood poured out of his nose and mouth in a rush.

It was a way of dying by bursting his own blood vessels.

Thinking this situation was his lord’s will, Il-oh took his own life before being interrogated.

Whether it was loyalty or despair, it was hard to say.

In that it came from a misunderstanding, it was a truly meaningless death.

No, what looked like a meaningless death at first glance gained meaning thanks to one item.

An item Heuk-am had placed into the hands of his servant, whose martial arts were nothing special.

Il-oh was wearing a necklace that notified its owner of danger or mishap.

Ppajik.

The gemstone hanging from that necklace cracked on its own.

That cracked necklace would have delivered the wearer’s mishap to a divine ancient sovereign.

The northern sky flashed, turning bright.

And a powerful roar of fury unleashed from there reached where Yi-gang was, belatedly.

“Mang… hon…!”

Even through the echo that split the distance and rang out, the rage in that shout was vivid.

The sky flashed several more times, and the sounds of something colliding and exploding could be heard.

Anyone with proper judgment would realize something extremely dangerous was happening in that direction.

And they would know they should not head there.

“Did a rift break out?”

“It sounds like an uproar broke out.”

But those who had come this far were not people who would back down.

“It might be an opportunity, or it might mean things went wrong, but…”

They decided to increase their speed instead.

“From now on, we don’t hide. We push through fast!”

Yu Jeong-shin shouted.

1. Tl/N: about half an hour ️

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep